Petoskey taking on Cadillac

December 18, 2003

CADILLAC -There will be no gifts for the Petoskey High School boys' basketball team heading into Christmas break this season.

The Northmen will have to earn it.

Petoskey takes its perfect record into Cadillac on Friday, Dec. 19, for an important early season Big North Conference battle. The Northmen are 3-0 overall, 1-0 in the league, while the Vikings are 1-1, 1-0.

"This is what we hope is the first of several big league games for us," Northmen coach Dennis Starkey said. "Cadillac has been mentioned by just about everybody as one of the top couple of teams in the league."

So have the Northmen. That's why Friday's game, though it comes in December, is so important for both teams.

The Vikings opened with a 56-49 non-league loss to Mount Pleasant, but downed Traverse City West - also expected to be in the hunt this season in the Big North - on Tuesday, 61-53.

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Cadillac's top player is 6-foot-4 guard/forward Kyle Maury, who scored 25 points against Mount Pleasant and had 20 points, five assists and five steals against West.

"Cadillac presents matchup problems for everybody," Starkey said. Maury will "shoot the three but he'll also post up. That combination makes him tough to match up with."

That matchup likely will fall on the shoulders of Petoskey's senior guard duo of Damon Huffman and Anthony Wilhelm, and their teammates who have proven quite capable of coming off the bench to provide solid defensive minutes.

"We'll rotate different people on him and try to keep somebody fresh on him," Starkey said. "But he's not the only guy they have. (Matt) McDonald's a solid guard, and (Ryan) Selleck's a good post player (Selleck)."

The Vikings also feature a very good athlete in 6-foot-2 Graham Nelson, along with 6-1 Vygis Grinis of Lithuania.

"They're a very aggressive defensive team," Starkey said.

The Northmen opened the season by winning their own invitational tournament, and followed with a relatively easy league-opening victory over Cheboygan on Tuesday.

Cadillac may pose the stiffest test yet. But the Northmen, many of whom started or played significant minutes last year - and in years before that - faced several big games in the 2002-03 season.

"We can draw on the experiences we've had," Starkey said. "We won down there last year, actually two of the last three. It's a tough place to play, but our guys have all been there. They've all won there and we can draw from those experiences."

WMBN-1340 will broadcast the varsity contest with pre-game at approximately 7:15 p.m.